And now the figures of other old friends of Charles Lamb, gradually (one
by one), slip out of sight. Still, in his later letters are to be found
glimpses of Wordsworth and Southey, of Rogers and Hood, of Cary (with whom
his intimacy increases); especially may be noted Miss Isola, whom he
tenderly regarded, and after whose marriage (then left more alone) he
retreats to his last retreat, in Church Street, Edmonton.

From details let us escape into a more general narrative. The latest facts
need not be painfully enumerated. There is little left, indeed, to
particularize. Mary's health fluctuates, perhaps, more frequently than
heretofore. At one time she is well and happy; at another her mind becomes
turbid, and she is then sheltered, as usual, under her brother's care. The
last Essays of Elia are published;--friends visit him;--and he
occasionally visits them in London. He dines with Talfourd and Cary. The
sparks which are brought out are as bright as ever, although the splendor
is not so frequent. Apparently the bodily strength, never great, but
sufficient to move him pleasantly throughout life, seemed to flag a
little. Yet he walks as usual. He and his sister "scramble through the
Inferno:" (as he says to Gary), "Mary's chief pride in it was, that she
should some day brag of it to you." Then he and Mary became very poorly.
He writes, "We have had a sick child, sleeping, or not sleeping, next to
me, with a pasteboard partition between, who killed my sleep. My
bedfellows are Cough and Cramp: we sleep three in a bed. Don't come yet to
this house of pest and age." This is in 1833. At the end of that year (in
December) he writes (once more humorously) to Rogers, expressing, amongst
other things, his love for that fine artist, Stothard: "I met the dear old
man, and it was sublime to see him sit, deaf, and enjoy all that was going
on mirthful with the company. He reposed upon the many graceful and many
fantastic images he had created." His last letter, written to Mrs. Dyer on
the day after his fall, was an effort to recover a book of Mr. Cary, which